Where the rubber meets the road ... the first word that comes to mind is “friction.” Obviously, a lot of heat is produced at the point of the rubber meeting the road. To my chagrin, it took me more than a decade of ministry to discover that. When theory, or in our case, theology, is practically applied in the body of Christ, the consequences may produce conflict.
Theology is kind to the student in the seminary, but the practice of it in the church house is often an extremely hard pill for the congregation to swallow. Getting one’s theology into practice is one of the more challenging aspects of a pastor’s responsibility; that’s why it is often left undone. Why stir the hornet’s nest when theory alone keeps the peace?
That’s the question I answered a few years ago in my own life and ministry. Now I am hopeful that my journey will be helpful to others. I must stipulate, however, that what you may discover in this lesson may not lead to a bigger, brighter field of service or to greater heights of glory on the denominational ladder. Instead, it may lead to a journey with some degree of suffering and perhaps even a large dose of being misunderstood. But before you jettison yourself from such a life of potential hardship, be reminded that the Savior was Himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Clearly, being a man of such trials is not in opposition to a life of holiness and lasting joy, for Christ is the purest example of such a paradox in the human experience. No one ever knew the heights of the joy the Son of Man experienced in His Father’s presence nor the depths of His pitiful suffering at the hands of man. No one can fully realize the vengeance of His own Father upon Him due to His vicarious endeavor on the cross.
These are not merely words of an introduction. They are foundational to one’s Christianity being richly lived out. Make no mistake about it, true Christianity is not merely to be contained within a man but is to be proclaimed through a man’s actions and words. The same is true of a local body of believers known as a New Testament church. If theology directs only the mind but never stirs the heart and imagination of God’s people to action, then it is a dead theology. Faith without works is dead, according to the divine revelation, and any notion of the possibility of a workless faith is foreign to Holy Writ. The sad reality on many occasions is that Bible-preaching churches take great comfort in the correctness of the theory of the church while never becoming bold enough to endure the friction caused by actually putting it into practice.
Here are a few lessons I have learned over the years as to the attitude one must possess when entering a field of ministry. When I came to my present charge in 1989, I was filled with two great convictions that spurred me onward in the face of nagging opposition.
First, I was convinced that God had called me to the gospel ministry and had providentially led me to the church I presently serve.
Secondly, and this is most vital in maintaining sanity in the ministry, I was so thoroughly convinced of the first conviction that I knew that man could not take away what God intended. To put it bluntly, I stopped being afraid of the people. I don’t mean that in an arrogant or disrespectful way. Simply by virtue of the fear instilled in me by the Sovereign God, I began to see man’s vengeance as relatively puny. Clearly, I’m not stating I was convinced that if I stood for and demanded the actual practice of the truth the Bible taught that I would not be fired. I knew it could happen, and there were times I actually prayed for it, seeing that it appeared at times to be the easiest way out. I was not being convinced so much as to what the church would do, but as to what God would do. And what was I convinced that God would do? I was convinced that He would work all things for my good and His glory according to His infinite wisdom and eternal decree. This is true freedom from the bondage of pleasing men and the fear of losing one’s employment.
Unless God raises up men who are unafraid of facing spiritual obstinance, rebellion and threats, we will continue our present slide into the abyss. If you think that the actual engagement of biblical truth in the very life of the church is going to be without hostile battles, then, please, for the kingdom’s sake, get out of the ministry and let battle-readied men stand in your stead.
Here are a few concrete examples of putting faith into practice in the local church and the consequences of it. First, when I came to Ormond Beach, Florida, I was thoroughly reformed in my soteriology. I believed in the two paradoxical truths of God’s absolute sovereignty and man’s full responsibility as taught in the Word of God. I was also convinced of the necessity of preaching by exposing the texts of Scripture to the extent that I informed our leaders and congregation that the entirety of our practice would be measured by the Word of God. It would encourage you, I’m sure, to tell you that the people lauded me as a great man of God and followed the course I believed God had set for the congregation. But I would be less than honest in doing so.
What did happen was that people started leaving—not just a few here and a few there. Dozens at a time became so vehemently opposed to my convictions of truth that some even informed the local newspaper about my poor policies and beliefs, which ultimately made print. An “anti-Roy rally” was staged at a local park where hundreds showed up with signs seeking my removal from the church. I was almost expunged from the great state of Florida. Some even signed a petition to send me back to Arkansas. I was so frustrated that I told them to bring the petition in, and I would sign it.
What was this all about? I was preaching the Word of God and admonishing the church to practice biblical truth. The church had been under a rather liberal pulpit for the preceding seven or eight years—with the exception of my immediate predecessor, who believed the Bible but was run off in less than 15 months.
After four years of losing members, there was a brief respite. But, soon, new battles arose. When people began to listen more carefully to the content of my preaching, some of the members began to make accusations about my Calvinism. Though I did not use the terminology at that point in my ministry, preaching through Romans soon exposed the “hideous” fact that I believed in divine, unconditional election. When I was being called to the church in 1989, I had explained my convictions, but the people apparently didn’t understand. People all over Greater Daytona Beach still approach me and ask me if I’m the preacher who believes in predestination. Their query is not usually for the purpose of exercising compassion upon the perceived, poor, misinformed preacher.
What a sad and tragic reality it is when people who are in church every Sunday deride the preaching of doctrines that are taught explicitly in the Scriptures.
Riverbend, the church I pastor, is still called by prominent Christians in our area “a cult.” Ironically, that label stems from our belief in the great and wonderful Doctrines of Grace that men like Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Whitefield, Edwards, Dagg, Boyce, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones and other great stalwarts of the faith embraced, as well as the prophets, Jesus and the New Testament apostles. The exercise of the opponents’ consternation of such preaching, however, has been exponentially compounded not by the theory of it but by the practical application of it in the lives of God’s people.
The opposition to actually practicing what is positionally set forth in the biblical text continued. After the first round of friction in our church, some peaceful days were ordered by the good hand of God upon us. I began to realize that neither my practice, nor the practice of the church I pastor, was actualizing what we believed to be true. For instance, in believing that God is sovereign in salvation, that regeneration is monergistic and that true conversion is of the heart, the practice of the “altar call” became a source of conviction to me and most of our people. Some may not be aware that our denomination generally holds the altar call as the primary means of salvation in the church. The removal of such tradition would appear to be co-equal to, if not greater than, the perversion of an established Christian doctrine.
When we removed this practice, a number of people left, never to return to our fellowship. Some of them questioned how people could be saved without the altar call. Scary, is it not?
Then there was the New Testament teaching of church discipline which, in practice, we were disobediently ignoring in practice. When I began to teach in greater detail the Scriptures concerning this doctrine and to implement the practice of it for purity in the body, for repentance and for reconciliation for the wayward, a couple hundred people departed from our fellowship. Most of them stated that we had become a church of hate and judgment. By that time, however, our precious people at Riverbend had learned the high cost of believing and practicing biblical truth. They were battle-ready, and God used them mightily as a witness to the Daytona Beach area.
Finally, we began to desire as a people greater purity of truth and practice in the fellowship. We required a much stricter scrutiny in receiving members into the body—not unbiblical scrutiny but a demand for fruit meet for repentance, as John the Baptist had preached. I have observed for many years that it is apparently easier to join a local church than it is to join the Moose Club, where men wear funny hats. So frivolous are we in our acceptance of warm bodies that the FBI could not find most of the members of our churches.
When I came as senior pastor in 1989, we had more than 3,500 members. I have labored in the vineyard for almost 18 years and whittled it to 1,400 members. Of course, in 1989 only 375 members attended on Sunday, and today we sometimes have more showing up for church than we have members. Almost 900 of them actually attend on Wednesday nights to worship God and learn more of His greatness. Membership, in the Bible, means covenant relationship and accountability, and we take that very seriously.
From this flowed greater demands on our leadership in the church. We now require all of our leaders to sign annually, before the congregation, an Affirmation of Faith, largely based on the 1689 Baptist Confession. Hundreds of leaders sign it in one of the more moving services of the year. It not only gives each of us an opportunity to affirm publicly our theological convictions, it also confirms in the hearts of our children and young people that we mean business when it comes to the work of the Almighty. This practice adds biblical solidarity to the training of our observing children, who are also learning catechisms and discovering the great truths of Scripture.
Looking back on the ministry at Riverbend, I see God’s hand of providence guiding us through each phase of maturity. As we launched into the practice of New Testament revelation, we realized the altar call was an unbiblical practice.
Without an altar call, we preach to minds and hearts the call to repentance and faith in the full, rich merits of Christ’s active and passive obedience. We are thoroughly convinced that the preaching of the whole truth of God’s holiness, love, wrath and mercy initiates the true invitation to salvation. Our church now glories in God over the salvation of a soul, instead of patting the preacher on the back for giving a powerful altar call. This has also produced a people who speak of the things of the Savior in their homes, at school, in the workplace and on the playground. The Lord has blessed us over the years with a multitude of converts who continue through perseverance to prove the validity of their faith. Though we have been attacked primarily by other church people in the community due to theological misunderstandings, the Lord has given us great favor among the unchurched, unreached people of the community. Christ has continued to build His church. Great inroads have been made in our area, with many churches reexamining their theology and practice. I encourage you to remain faithful, as God’s Word is always triumphant over faulty philosophies.
After my first eight years of ministry at Riverbend, we relocated from a five-acre campus to what has become a 112-acre campus. When I see 1,300-1,400 people on a given Sunday, as well as a full house on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, I rejoice—not in the size but in the blessings of a people determined to live out their days for the glory of God.
Many are convinced that a church cannot thrive without acquiescing to a man-centered ministry. “User-friendly” is the battle cry of our day, but to that, I say, FOLLY! I certainly want to encourage young preachers that God is still on His throne and that many people are hungering for the meat of Truth — not only the Truth as it is taught but also as it is lived out by a congregation. Size is not the issue in my understanding of true biblical ministry. Faithfulness to the truth and the glory of God is what ought to drive us. Small is not necessarily godly, nor is big necessarily ungodly. God’s providence determines all of that. Let us rest in Christ and exercise our faith for all to see so that they may glorify our heavenly Father.
Don’t let anyone convince you that truth and the practice of it must be relegated to the back-burner if we are to win the minds and hearts of Twenty-First Century man. Man’s root problem never changes; it is depravity which holds us captive. Therefore, preach doctrine, the law, judgment, hell and heaven, life and death, mercy, grace and love in all of their fullness. Preach the riches of Christ, and let all of your doctrine flow forth from the precious blood of the great Redeemer so that it may retain its life-giving power. Don’t buy into the dead, lifeless theology of our day. Keep pressing onward, young preacher, and lead a people to believe and practice the truth of God.
We are not to be driven by pragmatic principles. We are to be driven by theological truth which points the way to our hope and rest, which is Christ. Numbers are not our passion; the glory of God is. God didn’t call us to build His church. Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Thank God! The church we build is constantly pummeled by the minions of hell. But the church, the true church that Christ builds, triumphs over the foes.
May the church believe the truth. But let her also never forget to practice it. Where the rubber meets the road, there is always friction. But I prefer the heat to a cold church any day of the week. Fear not, young preacher, young missionary, young teacher. “Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Then you can die and enter the gates and hear from the blessed Savior, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21).
Everything else is vanity!
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Dr. R.A. Hargrave, Senior Pastor at Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida, is also the President and Bible-teacher for GraceWorx Ministries.
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IN THE DAY and age we live in, two questions have become blurred: If a man doesn’t work, ____? If a man can’t work, _____? Our society has treated both questions with the same answer: unfettered support. 
